


Loose Ends

by SharmaWild



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29203875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharmaWild/pseuds/SharmaWild
Summary: Johnny meeting River to deal with the last loose end of V's old life so he can start his new one.
Relationships: V/River Ward
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Loose Ends

**Author's Note:**

> This is just my version of the epilogue of V choosing to go with Alt. I thought it was a bit weird that Johnny just disappeared without letting V's friends and loved ones know what happened.

River paced the narrow corridors of the Columbarium. Around him the walls with their grids of niches rose up, making him feel slightly claustrophobic. Above steel-gray clouds, heavy with the promise of rain blanketed the sky, blocking out the setting sun and adding to the oppressing atmosphere.

Why V had texted him after weeks had gone by without a word and asked him to meet her here was beyond him. But that cop instinct he had developed over the years working for NCPD told him that it wasn’t good. River fidgeted, wishing he’d taken up smoking if only so it would have given him something to do, made the wait easier.

Unable not to, he replayed the last time he’d talked to her. Her face had been pale on the holo, her eyes dark and haunted. She had sounded weary and worn, her voice decades older than the young face on the screen.

The words they had exchanged had been meaningless, empty nothings covering up something fragile that if it had been allowed to grow could have become a strong foundation that would have supported them both.

Love…

Even now his heart jolted with it. That night they had spent together there had been something between them, something that was more than just sex. He had felt it, and he knew she had felt it too. And the morning after when she had told him about the Relic, and about Johnny Silverhand’s engram… She had seemed so young and vulnerable, standing there wearing nothing but panties and his old T. Such a far cry from the street smart merc that had approached him at that greasy Chubby Buffalo’s diner about a million years ago. She had been so sure he would turn his back on her.

He hadn’t. He couldn’t. During the brief time they had spent together, discovering the shady dealings in the Red Queen’s Races and later hunting down Peter Pan’s lair, he had been captivated by how she handled herself. V never hesitated, diving headfirst into situations that would give even Max Tac reason to pause. 

She was fierce, a true warrior. And he loved her. It was as simple as that.

Thirty minutes dragged by, and the shadows in the Columbarium grew longer, deeper and darker. Here and there mourners had lit candles of remembrance, and as evening fell, their glow brightened, spreading dancing light over the walls.

Suddenly the sound of footsteps echoing between the walls reached him, and River’s hand instinctively went to his gun. But as a slender figure turned a corner and came into view, he released the weapon.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he watched her walk towards him. Despite the approaching evening and the deep gloom in the Columbarium, she was wearing dark tinted aviators, the glow from the cigarette between her lips reflecting in the lenses as she took a last drag of it before flicking it away. Her head was down and her shoulders pulled up against the chill beneath the worn leather jacket. 

River frowned. V didn’t smoke, and the way she moved seemed slightly off. But then she raised her head, pulled of the dark glasses, her eyes fastened on him and her lips curled in that little half-smile he had so quickly come to love.

“V!” Relief and joy mixed with threads of anger churned inside him. River closed the distance between them in quick strides, pulling her into his arms. “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick! Why haven’t you called?” The words stumbled out of him as he hugged her tightly, never wanting to let her go again. Then he realized that she wasn’t hugging him back. He pulled back a little, frowning. “V?” Then it dawned on him and he felt himself go cold. “You’re not V.”

Johnny stepped away from the man, busying himself with lighting a new cigarette so he wouldn’t have to see the stricken look on the ex-detective’s face. “Can’t be that much of a surprise. She warned you this could happen.” Even expecting it, the anger with which River reacted was shocking. Suddenly he was slammed against the nearest wall, the back of his head bouncing against the granite hard enough that he saw stars, bright dots dancing before his eyes.

For such a big guy, River could move with an uncanny speed.

“You stole her body, didn’t you?” The man growled in his ear. “You fuck!”

Even after almost a month in V’s body… his body now, the physical sensations were overwhelming. But his reflexes were as sharp as they always had been. He kicked out, forcing River to turn his hip towards him or get his nads kicked in. It made the man ease his grip on him, and Johnny threw a hard punch that hit the former detective in the shoulder.

River grunted in pain but that was about it. “No cybernetic arm, asshole”, he gritted out. “You can punch me all you want. I can take it.”

Cursing, not for the first time, V’s frailer frame and lack of muscles, Johnny let his fist slam into River’s shoulder again just for the hell of it. “You think I wanted this?” He hissed, anger, grief and frustration bleeding into his voice… her voice. Fuck, he couldn’t even speak without being reminded of the sacrifice V had made. To his embarrassment, he felt tears filling his eyes. “I told her to go back. I fucking begged her!”

“Why didn’t she?” River demanded. “Why are you here instead of her?”

Johnny met his angry gaze. “V decided the price of returning was too high.”

The scowl on River’s face deepened. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“According to Alt, the chip changed the body on molecular level. V’s mind would have been rejected. Alt said she would have had about six months to live if she returned.”

“Alt Cunningham, your output, said this?” River’s voice was flat.

“I see you did your homework.” Johnny managed a smirked.

“You’re right, I did”, River nodded. “Can’t say I liked what I found. You’re a manipulative asshole, Silverhand. You really expect me to believe anything you say?”

Johnny slumped a little in his grip. “No, I suppose I don’t.”

River abruptly let go of him, wheeling away, desperate to put some distance between the two. The aviators had fallen off during the tussle, and what he had read in V’s eyes… _his_ eyes was too much like the look he could see in his own every time he looked in a mirror: confusion and grief. When V had disappeared a part of him had known that she was gone for good. He just hadn’t been able to accept it. In those painfully familiar eyes he saw his own feelings multiplied. Whatever Johnny Silverhand had been before, right now he was a man consumed by grief and guilt. 

“If you knew I wouldn’t believe you, why did you come?” River asked. “You could have just left Night City.”

“Was planning to”, Johnny admitted. “But I couldn’t leave without letting you know what happened. V would have kicked my ass. She loved you”, he said, his voice softening. “She would want you to know that.

River rubbed a hand over his short sheared skull. “We could have had six months…” His voice was raw with emotions. He half-turned, giving Johnny a quick glance as if unable to look at him, at that face that no longer belonged to V. “Thanks for letting me know. What… what are you planning to do now?” He asked, his voice on the verge of breaking.

Johnny shrugged, in truth he wasn’t sure what to do. “I’ll leave Night City”, he said. “Everything here reminds me of her. She gave me a second chance, and I can’t spend it living in her shadow.”

River nodded. “Yeah, I get that. Good luck, Johnny.” And with that he started walking. He looked broken, moving slowly, his wide shoulders slumping, a far cry from his normal confident prowl. 

Johnny watched the man until he was swallowed up by the shadows, an unaccustomed stab of compassion piercing him. He was acutely aware of what River must be feeling. Straddling a chair that was nothing but a projection of ones and zeros there in Mikoshi, staring at V who was sitting on the digitized ground in front of him with a look of utter agony on her face, he had felt the exact same thing.

Alt had told her that she would have to choose, that only one of them would be able to leave Mikoshi. And as tough and resilient as she was, V had been heartbroken. Against all logic, she had hoped for a happy ending for them both. 

“You’re going back, V”, he’d said, putting every ounce of conviction he could into his voice.

“Why?” She retorted. “So I can live like a ghost in a body that’s no longer mine for six months and then die? What would be the point?”

“You’d be alive!”

“I wouldn’t have a soul!” V retorted, her voice rising as his did. “I wouldn’t truly be me!”

“This again?” Johnny all but snarled in disgust. “Fuck me!”

“V is right, Johnny”, Alt’s serene voice sounded above them and around them. “There is an unquantifiable part of her that will be lost when I transfer her consciousness back into the body.” She was hovering above them like a goddess, and in this space, he supposed, that is exactly what she was.

“I can’t do it, Johnny”, V’s voice was thick with tears. She climbed to her feet, and now he was the one looking up at her. “I’m sorry”, she whispered. Then she started walking, heading for the bridge that would take her beyond the Black Wall.

In the here and now, Johnny made his way deeper into the labyrinthine Columbarium. Evening had fallen and despite the candles and the discreet lamps, shadows and darkness ruled the place.

The niche he was looking for was tucked away in the back, not that far from one bearing his own name. Next to that, was the one he had bought for Alt, and he stopped there for a moment, touching the inscription. “I know you don’t owe me anything, but please, take care of the kid for me. Keep her safe.”

Moving on, he followed, walking down a few steps to the newest part of the Columbarium. Most of the niches here was blank and empty. V’s was in the middle of the row. Johnny’s heart constricted at the sight of it, and he closed his eyes.

He hadn’t expected the acute sense of loss he was living with. The loneliness. He had moments when he hated V, hated that she had gone with Alt and dumped him here alone and lost. Hated that he couldn’t look in a mirror without being reminded of her. Of who she had been. Then he had moments when he felt a deep affection for her, deeper and more profound than anything he had ever experienced before.

Pressing two fingers to his lips, he then touched them to the simple letter V inscribed on the wall, brushing a kiss on it. “Hey, V…”

He had come to tie off the last loose ends of her life, and to say his good byes. Now that he stood there, it was a struggle to get words out. He was overwhelmed. V had been strong enough to choose to remain herself, to not sell out that inch of herself. In that moment in Mikoshi, she had proved that she was a true rebel, a true street samurai, and he loved her for it.

He always would.

The end.


End file.
